Shankaracharya, Amaru is described as
a king who becomes mythically con-
nected with the great sage. In response
to the challenge that he knows nothing
about sexuality, Shankaracharya uses
his yogic powers to animate Amaru’s
body immediately after the latter’s
death. In this form Shankaracharya
experiences this facet of human life,
although reportedly without desire on
his part. Shankaracharya has sexual
relations with Amaru’s wives, enjoys
the fruits of passion, and pens the
Amarushatakamto record his deeds.
Although this claim is highly doubtful,
it helps to illustrate some important
thematic connections between reli-
gious and erotic poetry. For further
information see Lee Siegel, Fires of
Love—Waters of Peace, 1983.
Amaruka
Another name for the legendary poet
Amaru. See Amaru.
Amarushatakam
(“Amaru’s Hundred”) Collection of
poems on the theme of eroticlove, tra-
ditionally ascribed to the seventh-cen-
tury poet Amaru. The text’s name is
doubly misleading since present edi-
tions contain almost 200 poems, and
there is strong evidence that it was com-
piled from several earlier collections,
making its authorship uncertain.
Although the poetry explores the joys of
carnal love and is thus not explicitly reli-
gious, the themes of lover/beloved and
union/separation treated in this poetry
later became standard genres of bhakti
(devotional) poetry.
Amba
In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata,
Amba is the elder sister of Ambikaand
Ambalika. In the story she is abducted
with her sisters by Bhishma, to be mar-
ried to his stepbrother Vichitravirya.
Ambika and Ambalika happily marry
Vichitravirya, but when Amba confides
that she has already given her heart to
King Salva, Bhishma releases her to go to
him. When Amba returns to Salva, he
rejects her on the grounds that her vir-
ginity is suspect because she has been
abducted by another man. Amba
returns to Bhishma and demands that
he marry her, since he is responsible for
her plight. Bhishma refuses to do so
because he has promised his father,
King Shantanu, that he will never marry,
to ensure that his stepbrothers will have
no rivals for the throne. His refusal
leaves Amba with no source of support,
and she vows to get revenge. She is later
reborn as the man-woman Shikhandi,
behind whom Arjunahides to shoot the
arrows that eventually kill Bhishma.Ambakeshvar
Another name for Tryambakeshvar, the
presiding deityof a sacred site (tirtha) at
Trimbak, in the Nasikdistrict of the state of
Maharashtra. Tryambakeshvar is one of
the twelve jyotirlingas, the “lingasof light”
that are considered especially sacred to
Shiva. See Tryambakeshvar.Ambalika
In the Hindu epic theMahabharata,
Ambalika is the daughterof the king of
Kashiand one of the wives of King
Vichitravirya. When Vichitravirya dies
childless, his mother, Satyavati, calls
upon her eldest son, Vyasa, to sleep with
Ambalika and her sister Ambikain the
hope that the womenwill conceive and
continue the family line. According to
tradition, Vyasa is very ugly, and each
woman involuntarily reacts when Vyasa
appears in her bed. Ambalika turns pale,
causing her son Panduto be born with
an unnaturally pale complexion, and
Ambika covers her eyes, causing her son
Dhrtarashtrato be born blind.Ambarisha
In Hindu mythology, a king of the
Ikshvakudynasty about whom various
sources paint very differing pictures. In
the Ramayana, the earlier of the twoAmaruka